Ralph Nader's book unsafe at any speed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Ralph Nader's book unsafe at any speed - Essay Example The book itself outlines in the title that people are unsafe at any speed they drive at. What is notable strange in the act of taking these safety measures is that even though others are effective, others are not effective at all; or even liked to the occurrence of accidents. Automobile industry is made up of profit making companies. For this to be possible revenue must be maximized, and costs must be minimized. Installing inbuilt features to add safety to drivers, especially in a case that they were not incorporated in the previous designs, meant that it was a move that only added cost to the production. No manufacturer embraces added costs and if it obliged, the companies had to look for other measures to cub the cost. According to this fact, the reason to some feature’s ineffectiveness is the use of cheap material and technology to design and manufacture them. Companies only make cheap safety features that only appealed the buyer’s perception but having little to protect them in case of accidents. The worst part of it all is that the customers trust the features and are not ready to take extra precautions, which further put the in more risk with accidents. Safety features in motor vehicles alone cannot help in reducing the general prevalence of deadly accidents. There are other factors that need to be observed in order to compliment safety measures in providing safety to both motor vehicle occupants and non-occupants (National Academy, 2000). Rules and policies should be enacted in respective countries to help cub motor vehicle accidents. When people only depend on safety measures to give them road safety, they are not doing themselves any favours, but exposing themselves to even more accidents. Relevant authorities should look into this issue other than only supporting the use of safety measures. Road accidents do not always involve single sides, but are

University Convenience Store Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

University Convenience Store - Essay Example Strength can be used to overcome the weakness experienced by firm. The location of the convenience stores in the university of New Brunswick Saint John campus is the biggest strength. The location of the store is easily traceable and hence approached by the students. Also the availability of wide range of products both for national and international students adds on to the strength. Weaknesses: The strength of its competitors might result in the greatest weakness for the convenience store. This is because of the fact that the competitor’s of the convenience store, the university cafeteria, the Chinese golden leaf market, the circle K market at Irving gas station, and Saputo Inc have already made its presence in the university making it difficult for the convenience store to acquire the position. Opportunity: The steady growth rate for convenience stores act as an opportunity for the university. Also with the introduction of new products catering mostly the international studen ts, the convenience stores have the opportunity to grow in the near future. Threats: Major threat lies from the competitors of the convenience stores which are located in the university. The major competitors include the university cafeteria, the Chinese golden leaf market, the circle K market at Irving gas station, and Saputo Inc. The University’s Cafeteria had a proper location and has helped to served it to be the main attraction. Market-Product Grid The market product grid is a useful tool used in targeting the customers; it is an instrument which addresses specifically the segmentation and targeting aspect. The market product grid which was depicted by Eric Berkowitz, Roger Kerin, William Rudelius and Steven Hartley consists of a matrix where markets represent vertical axis and products on the horizontal axis (Fortenberry & Fortenberry, 2009, p. 102). The Market-Product grid of the convenience stores is as follows, Market-Product Grid for Convenience store Markets/products Grocery items Stationary Items Toiletry Items Others Students 1 3 2 2 Othe r staffs and outsiders 3 2 3 2 3- Large market; 2-medium market; 1-small market; 0-nil The above grid shows the market product grid for the convenience store. It can be seen that the market for the convenience stores has been divided into two parts one is for the students and the other for the other members residing near the university. Accordingly the demand for the products have been categorized where 3 represents large market, 2 represents medium market, 1 small market and 0 nil. In case of university convenience store, the demand for stationery items seems to higher in demand each representing 3; grocery items represented 1 in case of students but 3 in case of other staffs and other member’s residing on or near the university. The demand for toiletry seems to be high in case on non students and medium for student’s category. However this can be concluded that the demand for the convenience store, both for the markets seems to be high throughout the year resulting i n higher profits and more customers. Product (features) The opening of convenience store in the university campus will be of a great deal because the campus is located in the out strikes of the city and there is no convenient availability of groceries and other products available to students. The store will be of a great convenience to the student community as there is a high need of such store in the area. The store will provide a hassle free experience of shopping (Targeting

Best War Ever America And World War Ii History Essay

Best War Ever America And World War Ii History Essay The objective of this book is to subject the chief features of the Good War myth to bright analysis in the hope of present an additional realistic picture, one that does not demean the achievement of the United States and of liberal democracy but that at the same time does not diminish the stress, suffering, problems, and failures inevitably faced by a society at war. The war was good for the economy. It was liberating for women. It was a war of tanks and airplanes a cleaner war than World War I. Americans were united. Soldiers were proud. It was a time of prosperity, sound morality, and power. But according to historian Michael Adams, our memory is distorted, and it has left us with a misleading even dangerous legacy. Challenging many of our common assumptions about the period, Adams argues that our experience of World War II was positive but also disturbing, creating problems that continue to plague us today. Michael C Adams has contributed to The Best War Ever: America and World War II as an author. Michael C. C. Adams, a professor of history at Northern Kentucky University, is the author of The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War I (1990).   Much of the events of WWII has been mythologized not only by Hollywood and government propaganda, and over the years this mythology has been perpetuated by those who lived through the war themselves. Michael C. C. Adams has sought to expose these stories for what they are, fabrication and oversimplifications, and provide the basic facts that facilitate a truer understanding of WWII and the world wide cultural changes surrounding it, both before and after the war itself. In chapter one, Mythmaking and the War, Adams sets out the myth itself, as defined by Hollywood dramatization, government propaganda, advertisement agencies, and the revised memories of those who stayed home, as well as those who fought in the war itself. The war became Americas golden age, a peak in the life of society when everything worked out and the good guys definitely got a happy ending. (Adams, 2) The WWII era came to serve a purpose; to be the bygone age which America once was, and if worked hard enough for, could be again. It was, in a sense, Americas Garden of Eden, the time and place where all things were right. Of course, this was a manufactured ideal, what Adams calls a usable past. In creating a usable past, we seek formulas to apply in solving todays problems. Americans believe that WWII proved one rule above all othersit is usually better to fight than to talk. (Adams, 4) To make WWII into the best war ever, we must leave out the area bombings and other questionable aspects while exaggerating the good things. The war myth is distorted not so much in what it says as in what it doesnt say. (Adams, 7) This applies not only to the war itself, but also to the home front. Chapter two, No Easy Answers, begins the process of deconstructing the myth, and demonstrating that the events leading up to WWII began long before the Treaty of Versailles, and the ramifications of WWII will last much longer than the generation that fought it. Adams lays out the frame of the complex political, cultural and economic histories of each of nations which would become involved in WWII, and shows that there was no obvious point at which one decision would have prevented the war from happening. Taken in context, the actions each nation took leading up to WWII make sense. Adams asks, what could have been done differently? Apparently, not much; appeasement didnt work in Europe, and determent didnt work in Asia. There really were no easy answers. Chapter three, The Patterns of War, 1939-1945 lays out the way in which each nation fought the war, with a new speed and brutality made possible by technology and the remoteness of the enemy. Chapter four, The American War Machine, demonstrates how the tools were created and sent into battle, and how the soldiers and organization of each army differed, for better or worse. Chapter five, Overseas, outlines the realities of life for the American soldier both in the European and Pacific theatres, while chapter six, Home front Changes, does the same for those who stayed home. These chapters have one unifying purpose; to define the reality of the WWII era, expose the complex history and actors, and above all, disabuse us of the reigning WWII mythos. Chapter seven, A New World, takes us one step further and debunks the myth that returning GIs readjusted quickly without lasting physical ailments and emotional traumas and into a society awaiting them with open arms, friendly smiles and lovin g families. Above all else, Adams has provided an interesting and easily accessible framework with which one can examine WWII and appreciate the complexities and realities of the era. While his history is intentionally brief and uncomplicated by example and detail, it does achieve its purpose. By identifying the mythos and realities of WWII, the Good War can be appreciated for what it actually was; an ugly, brutal and ultimately necessary war. Adams says that the existence of the WWII distortions is not entirely the fault of the American public. It is also the fault of the Federal Government and the media. The government censored controversial material during the war and only delivered to the public details that were uplifting and beneficial to the cause. The media also used the war to its advantage, promoting products using references to the war.   Adams also goes into detail the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome the soldiers endured during the war.   The book does go into some historical accounts of WWII. Most of Adams references though were secondary sources. I would have liked to see him use more primary sources which would have provided more authenticity and credibility to the book. I do recommend the book if you are looking for a quick read about WWII, but if you are looking for a military history about WWII, this is not the book for you. 3-John F. Kasson, AMUSING THE MILLION: CONEY ISLAND AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY Amusing the Million examines the historical context in which Coney Island made its reputation as an amusement park and shows how Americas changing social and economic conditions formed the basis of a new mass culture. Exploring it afresh in this way, John Kasson shows Coney Island no longer as the object of nostalgia but as a harbinger of modernityand the many photographs, lithographs, engravings, and other reproductions with which he amplifies his text support this lively thesis. After studying the whole book my point of analysis on this book is that In these times, when entertainers bare body parts normally kept strictly covered, it is hard to believe the cover photo of this book was considered rather racy a century ago. It shows a line of girls on the beach at Coney Island where the skirts on their swimsuits have been raised to reveal the shorts underneath. Considering that they also appear to have full-length tights on underneath the shorts, to modern eyes, they look overdressed. There were many social commentators at the end of the nineteenth century that argued that the egalitarian social structure of Coney Island was debasing the social fabric of the nation. As Coney Island was the most conspicuous example of the dramatic social changes taking place in the United States. By the turn of the century, the people were generally no longer rural tillers of the soil, having been transformed into urban tillers of the machines. Furthermore, by this time, the social distinctions between the upper and other classes were being blurred. As the author points out, at Coney Island, many of the stiff social restrictions came down. People who otherwise would not speak to each other became friendly and shared rides, beach water and other amusements.   The members of the compressed urban society craved simple and inexpensive recreation and Coney Island provided it. Therefore, as Kasson points out so well, it was a phenomenon that grew out of a social need and in many ways served as a social release. People could, for a very small fee, leave their crowded dwellings and engage in a day of escape. Everyone was equal on the rides and the beaches, so at least at that location, social distinctions disappeared.   Until I read this book, I had never considered the amusement park as a barometer for social change. However, it is now clear that Coney Island was a metaphor for a dramatic change in the social fabric of the nation and from this book, you can learn many of the details. These were all much the same in nature, differing mainly in size and duration. Their reason for being and the reason or them becoming a thing of the past is all the same.   The book suggests that they started in the mid-1800s is stretching the point somewhat as Fairs of all types were around for many centuries and only differed in how big they were, how far people travelled to them ,how much new inventions became incorporated and how long they lasted.   It seems that throughout history people loved to gather for just about any reason, but generally some sort of amusement along with the hope of seeing something new. Thus there were Races, Exhibitions of animals, crafts, products for prizes or sale, Auctions, Magic shows, Plays, Sporting events; and on and on ad infantilism.   This happened at Stonehenge and before, at the Roman Collisium, and Religious Celebrations. It didnt take much to create an event; heck, even a Hanging was enough to get a huge crowd out.  The same sort of thing continues today. So instead of taking the Subway to Coney Island or some other Amusement park; we go to the great Theme Parks, National Parks, Sporting Events, Concerts, Casinos, Vegas, Nashville, Ski Hills, Cruises, or even events and locations around the world, such as World Fairs or the Olympics.   The old adage The more things change, the more they become the same applies to Amusement Parks, just as it does to everything else.   The greatest change is in the ease of travel, the amount of disposable income available, and the introduction of TV where everything can be brought right into the living room. That doesnt leave much but the Thrill Rides, the Smells and Sounds, the Crowds and the Outdoors; but thats coming too.  The Canadian National Exhibition continues to run for 3 weeks in August: however it gets poorer and tackier every year and who knows how much longer it will continue. Amusement parks that began to exist during the turn of the century served as venues for fun and excitement as well as helped to release the repressed from the gentility of the Victorian Age of the nineteenth century. John Kasson examines the social and cultural ramifications that occurred in American society in his book, AMUSING THE MILLIONS: CONEY ISLAND AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY. In his study, Kasson shows how the American landscape became playgrounds, especially in New York, which extended the use of recreational space, New Yorks Central Park, and expositions that commemorated and celebrated the American historical past, Chicagos Columbian Exposition of 1893. They magnified the cornerstones and building blocks of the city, and the behavior that was exhibited with the rising middle class, which attracted a mass audience. The city became cosmopolitan and modern where many engaged and frolicked, and helped to unlatch social, racial, and economic boundaries that were bestowed upon ma ny individuals; they also helped to rejuvenate cities through urban planning.   Indeed, Kasson explores the world of imagination. The amusements ran the gamut from a Barnum and Bailey atmosphere to reveling along the boardwalk amongst exotic and unusual exhibits that coveted Coney Islands Luna Park and Dreamland Park. And within the text Kasson highlights those who helped architect this unrestrained environment of excess, such as Frederick Law Olmstead, Daniel H. Burnham, George C. Tilyou, Frederic Thompson, James Gibbons Huneker, and Maxim Gorky. Undoubtedly these were elaborate and spacious constructed palatial playgrounds of pleasure full of materialism and consumption where many gathered for pure utopian enjoyment. According to Kasson, these amusements also served as an outlet for artists and painters whose works did not particularly belong in museums. However, they reflected the modernist and realist genres of the art world before they came into vogue, and they depicted technological, urban, populous, egalitarian, erotic, hedonist, dynamic, and culturally d iverse images that the public were not accustomed to (88).   Overall, this is an interesting trip down nostalgic memory lane. Through the revealing pictures and detailed narrative, Kasson shows readers how Coney Island at the turn became a form of liberation for an array of classes. In essence, this is a good source to refer to when studying or reading about the American Dream as it relates to amusement parks that transcended social and cultural change in American society.   4-John Kenneth Galbraith, THE GREAT CRASH, 1929 The Great Crash, 1929  is a book written by  John Kenneth Galbraith  and published in 1954; it is an economic history of the lead-up to the  Wall Street Crash of 1929. The book argues that the 1929 stock market crash was precipitated by rampant speculation in the stock market, that the common denominator of all speculative episodes is the belief of participants that they can become rich without work and that the tendency towards recurrent speculative orgy serves no useful purpose, but rather is deeply damaging to an economy.  It was Galbraiths belief that a good knowledge of what happened in 1929 was the best safeguard against its recurrence. Galbraith wrote the book during a break from working on the manuscript of what would become  The Affluent Society. Galbraith was asked by  Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.  if he would write the definitive work on the  Great Depression  that he would then use as a reference source for his own intended work on Roosevelt. Galbraith chose to concentrate on the days that ushered in the depression. I never enjoyed writing a book more; indeed, it is the only one I remember in no sense as a labor but as a joy.  Galbraith received much praise for his work, including his humorous observations of human behavior during the speculative stock market bubble and subsequent crash. The publication of the book, which was one of Galbraiths first bestsellers, coincided with the 25th anniversary of the crash, at a time when it and the  Great Depression  that followed were still raw memories and stock price levels were only then recovering to pre-crash levels. Galbraith considered it the useful task of the historian to keep fresh the memory of such crashes, the fading of which he correlates with their re-occurrence. For the purpose of the summary and analysis phase of this book I thought that the Republican Great Depression of 1929-1939 has been an unending source of mystery, fascination, and disinformation for the past four generations. As youre reading these words, theres a huge push on by conservative think-tanks and wealthy political activists to reinvent the history, suggesting that Roosevelt prolonged the Depression or that New Deal programs were ineffective. At the same time, folks like David Sirota are valiantly pushing back with actual facts and statistics, showing that Roosevelts New Deal was startlingly effective, particularly when compared with the Republican policies of 1920-1929 that formed the bubble that crashed in 1929, and the Republican failures to deal with its consequences during the last three years of the Herbert Hoover administration (1929-1933). To really understand what brought about the great crash, however, its most useful to read an historical narrative written by one of the worlds preeminent economists when that world-changing event was still fresh in his and his readers minds.  The Great Crash  is that book, first written by Galbraith in 1953-54 (and published in 1955) and updated for modern readers in 1997. From this book I like to discuss some points in its summary phase. From the Introduction The people who remained sane and quiet Extracts from  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955, Page 27 Even in such a time of madness as the late twenties, a great many man in Wall Street remained quite sane. But they also remained very quiet. The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil. Perhaps this is inherent. In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live. To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish thus have the field to themselves. None rebukes them. From Chapter 1: A Year to Remember Opportunities for the social historian Extracts from  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955, Page 26 In the autumn of 1929 the mightiest of Americans were, for a brief time, revealed as human beings. Like most humans, most of the time, they did some very foolish things. On the while, the greater the earlier reputation for omniscience, the more serene the previous idiocy, the greater the foolishness now exposed. Things that in other times were concealed in a heavy facade of dignity now stood exposed, for the panic suddenly, almost obscenely, snatched this facade away. We are seldom vouchsafed a glance behind this barrier; in our society the counterpart of the Kremlin walls is the thickly stuffed shirt. The social historian must always be alert to his opportunities, and there have been few like 1929. From Chapter 7: Things Become More Serious Things keep getting worse Extracts from  The Great Crash: 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith, First Published 1955, Page 130 In the autumn of 1929 the New York Stock Exchange, under roughly its present constitution, was 112 years old. During this lifetime it had seen some difficult days. On 18 September 1873, the firm of Jay Cooke and Company failed, and, as a more or less direct result, so did fifty-seven other Stock Exchange firms in the next few weeks. On 23 October 1907, call money rates reached one hundred and twenty-five per cent in the panic of that year. On 16 September 1922 the autumn months are the off-season in Wall Street a bomb exploded in front of Morgans next door, killing thirty people and injuring a hundred more. A common feature of all these earlier troubles was that, having happened, they were over. The worst was reasonably recognizable as such. The singular feature of the great crash of 1929 was that the worst continued to worsen. What looked one day like the end proved on the next day to have been only the beginning. Nothing could have been more ingeniously designed to maximize the suffering, and also to ensure that as few as possible escaped the common misfortune. The fortunate speculator who had funds to answer the first margin call presently got another and equally urgent one, and if he met that there would still be another. In the end all the money he had was extracted from him and lost. The man with the smart money, who was safely out of the market when the first crash came, naturally went back in to pick up bargains. The bargains then suffered a ruins fall. Even the man who waited out all of October and all of November, who saw the volume of trading return to normal and saw Wall Str eet become as placid as a produce market, and who then bought common stocks would see their value drop to a third or a fourth of the purchase price in the next twenty-four months. The Coolidge bull market was a remarkable phenomenon. The ruthlessness of its liquidation was, in its own way, equally remarkable. 5-Ronald G. Walters, AMERICAN REFORMERS, 1815-1860 With American Reformers, Walters has composed a fine synthesis of secondary literature on the varied antebellum reform movements. In doing so, he argues that the reform impulse emerges out of evangelical Protestantism but by the Civil War takes a more secular turn more involved in legislating social controls than converting the hearts of individuals. As he develops this argument he addresses the different forms that this reform impulse took and organizes the book thematically. He discusses in successive chapters utopian movements and secular communitarians, abolition, the womens movement and the peace movement, temperance, health reform and spiritualism, working mans reform, and institutional reform, into which he groups mental hospitals, prisons and schools. Walters demonstrates the secularization of reform in the realm of communitarian societies. Thus, the early nineteenth century utopian settlements that often emerged out of pietistic impulses gave way to more secular experiments in social engineering such as Owenism, or as in the case of Oneida, how a once religious community endured only as a commercial venture. Similarly he shows institutions such as asylums wove their religious inspiration with the science of the times but like prisons and almshouses became holding pens for outcasts rather than places for healing and reform. Walters also situates the emergence of reform in the particular circumstances of antebellum America. He argues that the emergence of the middle class created made it possible for people to devote time to reform, and those technological advances in printing made it possible for people to actually make a living as an agitator. He also argues that reform helped shape the identity of the emerging middle class. This point comes through particularly clearly in his chapter on working mans reform. Walters synthesis suffers from its grand scope and short length. In it he sacrifices a certain amount of detail and analysis for space and clarity. The section on utopian movements, for example, traces the personalities of the major reformers and a brief outline of the community that followed without in-depth analysis. Throughout the book quotations from primary sources would have been helpful in giving a feel for the particular movement under discussion. The lack of primary source material allows Walters to sacrifice documentation, and the reader sometimes wishes for some assistance in discerning the origin or fuller development of a particular point. To his credit, Walters provides a good bibliographical essay at the end, but the lack of documentation sometimes proves frustrating and thus interrupts the otherwise smooth flow in the text. Nonetheless, American Reformers is a very readable and useful synthesis of the secondary sources on antebellum reform. As such, it is a helpful an d welcome addition to the field. In my mind, this is an introductory text, albeit a fine one. Walters is very accessable, he tries to include necessary historical perspective and whatever cultural information he deems to be valuable to the story hes telling in each chapter. And while each chapter is a story of a different movement or people, he also demonstrates those things these groups have in common. I wont spoil it for you, but at the least of it, they were all idealists who thought to affect the world around them. Material and political changes transformed America at a dizzying pace in the 1820s and 1830s. The expansion of industrialization, the creation of roads and canals to connect manufacturers to new markets, westward migration, a prolonged period of economic depression following the panic of 1837, and the broadening of voting rights triggered vast social upheavals. Reform movements were often attempts to cope with the consequences of these changes. Some movements wanted reform of institutions like prisons, schools, and asylums. Others looked to individual regeneration to transform the whole society. Some reformers drew attention to a particular groups suffering: Richard Henry Danas  Two Years before the Mast  (1840), for example, pressed for expanded legal rights for sailors. Others, like the founders of Brook Farm, sought radical and universal reform. A powerful source of reform emerged from the Second Great Awakening, the religious revivals sweeping the nation from the 1790s through the 1820s. Like the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, this series of revivals emphasized individual, often emotional religious experiences. Yet unlike the first period of revival, the Second Great Awakening had an even broader impact. The disestablishment of religion in the early national period and the deism associated with Americas founding fathers (that is, their belief in the power of reason and the existence of a Supreme Creator and their skepticism about supernatural religious explanations) seemed to threaten the nations Protestant moral foundation. Moreover, many Christians attributed certain social ills (drinking, dueling, disregard for the Sabbath, and the like) to Chris-tianitys decline. Ministers such as Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) and Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) responded with messages about wickedness, conversion, and the imm inent return of Christ. Moving away from the Calvinist doctrines (such as predestination) associated with the initial Great Awakening, they preached individual moral agency and personal salvation, moral improvement and perfection, and a responsibility to hasten the coming of Gods Kingdom. These religious ideas contributed to the desire for reform and creation of voluntary benevolent societies such as the American Education Society (1815), American Bible Society (1816), and American Tract Society (1825). These organizations distributed religious literatures, but their members also led efforts to stem Sabbath-breaking, drinking, and other forms of vice. Various female moral reform societies focused on ending prostitution, sexual exploitation, and the sexual double standard. The ostensibly moral concern with sexual vice also helped justify the not-so-pious demand for reform literature featuring fallen and wronged women in texts like Maria Monks  Awful Disclosures  (1836) and George Fosters  New York by Gas-Light  (1850). Evangelical reformers also played important roles in other reform movements. Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-1895), a disciple of Finney, began his career distributing tracts and preaching against strong drink. In 1829 Weld shifted his efforts to the campaign against slavery and authored two antislavery classics,  The Bible against Slavery  (1837), which dismantled biblical pro-slavery arguments, and  American Slavery As It Is  (1839), the text that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) to write  Uncle Toms Cabin  (1851-1852). Evangelical reform spread popular literature as tracts, sermons, Sunday school books, and temperance testimonies. The revivals also had an important influence on developments in literary style. Religious writings became more emotional and imaginative, formally less rigid, and theologically less rigorous. Antebellum religious texts began to rely on vivid narratives to illustrate, edify, and entertain. This new religious style, as David S. Reynolds calls it in his study  Beneath the American Renaissance  (p. 15), reshaped not only evangelical writing but also the style of liberal reformers, popular writers, and transcendentalists. 6-James M McPherson, ABRAHAM LINCOLN In honor of the bicentennial of Lincolns birth, renowned Civil War scholar James M. McPherson has written a wonderful brief biography of our 16th President. This book will be a wonderful source for beginners to study Lincoln and will serve as a good framework for larger works, like David Herbert Donalds  Lincoln. This book covered the important aspects of Lincolns life from his birth and childhood in Kentucky and Indiana to his coming to Illinois, to his administration and death. McPherson discussed Lincolns tarnished relationship with his father and his wonderful relationship with his step-mother, which presented a more personal side of the man. Though short, this book does a great job of discussing Lincolns life in the larger context of American history. McPherson summarized the important moments and events during his life and provided a wonderful look at the war and its effect on him. True to his scholarly reputation, McPherson used great sources for this little biography, including the  Collected Works of Lincoln  and  Lincoln at Cooper Union  to name a couple. In addition to using great primary and secondary sources, McPherson provided a bibliographic essay that provided a great synthesis of the historiography of Lincoln and where it may be heading in the coming year. There are many things to like about this book. It is a well-researched, but brief biography that will reach a wide audience. The reputation of James McPherson as a scholar lends great weight to the legitimacy of this biography.  Abraham Lincoln  is a wonderful beginning to the scholarly celebration of the Lincoln bicentennial. - James McPherson has emerged as one of Americas finest historians.  Battle Cry of Freedom  , his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in  The New York Times Book Review  , called history writing of the highest order. In that volume, McPherson gathered in the broad sweep of events, the political, social, and cultural forces at work during the Civil War era. Now, in  Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution  , he offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on aspects of Lincoln and the war that have rarely been discussed in depth. McPherson again displays his keen insight and sterling prose as he examines several critical themes in American history. He looks closely at the Presidents role as Commander-in-Chief of the Union forces, showing how Lincoln forged a national military strategy for victory. He explores the importance of Lincolns great rhetorical skills, uncovering howthrough parables and figurative languagehe was uniquely able to communicate both the purpose of the war and a new meaning of liberty to the people of the North. In another section, McPherson examines the Civil War as a Second American Revolution, describing how the Republican Congress elected in 1860 passed an astonishing blitz of new laws (rivaling the first hundred days of the New Deal), and how the war not only destroyed the social structure of the old South, but radically altered the balance of power in America, ending 70 years of Southern power in the national government. The Civil War was the single most transforming and defining experience in American history, and Abraham Lincoln remains the most important figure in the pantheon of our mythology. These graceful essays, written by one of America are leading historians, offer fresh and unusual perspectives on both. From my analysis point of view the book itself in hardcover is a joy to hold with its compact size, readable typeface and bound-in ribbon bookmark. Whoever worked on this project obviously did it as a labor of love. They worked the details on this one.  You cant honestly compare this work to others like Carl Sandbergs Lincoln or With Malice towards None or even my nice coffee table book of photographs taken of Lincoln. This work COMPLEMENTS those more comprehensive volumes. That said, it is not incomplete. It does an excellent job of hitting the hundreds of high and low points in Lincolns too brief life. The pace moves quickly and precisely along so that you never have the feeling that youre being written down to if thats the phrase Im looking for. This one has NOT been dumbed down for the reader.   Personally I see this smaller volume as an annual read to remind me of just how special Lincoln was as a man and as our nations leader. He was willing, even at great personal cost, to do the right thing on the toughest, most entrenched issues in our nations hist

Symbolic Speech Should Be Protected -- mh

Why Symbolic Speech Should Be Protected 1. The measure of a great society is the ability of its citizens to tolerate the viewpoints of those with whom they disagree. As Voltaire once said, â€Å"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it† (Columbia). This right to express one's opinion can be characterized as â€Å"freedom of speech.† The concept of â€Å"freedom of speech† is a Constitutional right in the United States, guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution: â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances† (U.S. Constitution). Because it is a Constitutional right, the concept of freedom of speech is hardly ever questioned. â€Å"On its most basic level [freedom of speech] means you can express an opinion without fear of censorship by the government, even if that opinion is an unpopular one† (Landmark Cases). However, the actions of Americans that are included under â€Å"free speech,† are often questioned. Many people support the theory of â€Å"free speech,† but may oppose particular practices of free speech that personally offend them. This hypocrisy is illustrated by the case of Neo-Nazis whose right to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1979 was protested by many, but ultimately successfully defended by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The residents of this predominantly Jewish town which contained many Holocaust survivors were offended by the presence of the Neo-Nazis. However, then ACLU Executive Director Aryeh Neier, who... ...sday . 27 February 2003. Pedulla, Tom. â€Å"Spurning anthem creates rancor.† USA Today. â€Å"Texas v. Johnson.† (1989). â€Å"Landmark Supreme Court Cases.† â€Å"Thomas Search Engine.† Library of Congress. â€Å"Tinker v. Des Moines.† (1969). Landmark Supreme Court Cases. â€Å"United States v. O'Brien.† (1968). â€Å"U.S. Constitution.†

How to Identify Threats & Vulnerabilities in an IT Infrastructure Using ZeNmap Essay

1. Understand how risk from threats and software vulnerabilities impacts the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure 2Review a ZeNmap GUI (Nmap) network discovery and Nessus vulnerability assessment scan report (hardcopy or softcopy) 3.Identify hosts, operating systems, services, applications, and open ports on devices from the ZeNmap GUI (Nmap) scan report 4.Identify critical, major, and minor software vulnerabilities from the Nessus vulnerability assessment scan report 5.Prioritize the identified critical, major, and minor software vulnerabilities 6.Verify the exploit potential of the identified software vulnerabilities by conducting a high-level risk impact by visiting the Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVE) online listing of software vulnerabilities at http://cve.mitre.org/ Week 3 Lab: Assessment Worksheet Identify Threats and Vulnerabilities in an IT Infrastructure Overview One of the most important first steps to risk management and implementing a security strategy is to identify all resources and hosts within the IT infrastructure. Once you identify the workstations and servers, you now must then find the threats and vulnerabilities found on these workstations and servers. Servers that support mission critical applications require security operations and management procedures to ensure C-I-A throughout. Servers that house customer privacy data or intellectual property require additional security controls to ensure the C-I-A of that data. This lab requires the students to identify threats and vulnerabilities found within the Workstation, LAN, and Systems/Applications Domains. Lab Assessment Questions & Answers 1. What are the differences between ZeNmap GUI (Nmap) and Nessus? ZeNmap is the graphical user interface for Nmap. Nmap when introduced was all command line interface, ZeNmap was created to make the software user friendly. Nmap doesn’t tell you the vulnerabilities on a system that requires knowledge of the computer network, the network baseline, to figure out where the vulnerabilities exist. Nessus is like Nmap in that it can do network discovery, but unlike Nmap, it is designed to scan systems to determine their vulnerabilities. Nessus has the ability to create policies which are composed of scanning specifications. 2. Which scanning application is better for performing a network discovery reconnaissance probing of an IP network infrastructure? The best application for this process would be Nmap 3. Which scanning application is better for performing a software vulnerability assessment with suggested remediation steps? Nessus would be the best application for this process. 4. While Nessus provides suggestions for remediation steps, what else does Nessus provide that can help you assess the risk impact of the identified software vulnerability? Nessus allows users to identify vulnerabilities, and attack those vulnerabilities to establish the impact of an attack. Nessus starts with a port scan and attempts to exploit ports that are open. 5. Are open ports necessarily a risk? Why or why not? Open ports are not necessarily a risk, it depends upon the application that is using the port. If no service is using the port, then the packets will be rejected by the system. 6. When you identify a known software vulnerability, where can you go to assess the risk impact of the software vulnerability? Software vulnerabilities are documented and tracked by US CERT, U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness and Team, in a public accessible list called Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list, CVE. 7. If Nessus provides a pointer in the vulnerability assessment scan report to look up CVE-2009-3555 when using the CVE search listing, specify what this CVE is, what the potential exploits are, and assess the severity of the vulnerability. Does not renegotiation handshakes with an existing connection, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to insert data into HTTPS sessions, and possibly other types of sessions protected by TLS or SSL. The CIA scores are none, partial, and partial with a CVVS score of 5.8. 8. Explain how the CVE search listing can be a tool for security practitioners and a tool for hackers. I a public access list of known vulnerabilities that a security professional can use to check against the systems being analyzed. Hackers can use the list of know vulnerabilities in OS’s and software, to exploit the vulnerability to gain files, or information from systems. 9. What must an IT organization do to ensure that software updates and security patches are implemented timely? Allow testing of the patch or update on a non-production system, have an update policy for the implementation of updates and patches. 10. What would you define in a vulnerability management policy for an organization? An executive summary stating the findings of the vulnerability assessment from a penetration test. Audit goals and objectives, audit methodologies, recommendations and prioritization of vulnerabilities.

Critical Thinking Reflection Essay

Of the topics that I could choose from, I chose to discuss how to reduce poverty in the United States. Poverty in the United States has been something that I have been personally hearing about since I was a child. It has always been a topic during every Presidential debate that I can remember. While growing up, I have always pondered ways of helping others that were less fortunate than myself. This had led me to believe whole-heartedly that the poverty rate can be reduced through several avenues. The first way that poverty can be reduced is by increasing the minimum wage. The current minimum wage is $7.25. â€Å"In the late 1960s, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage could lift a family of three out of poverty† (Vallas, 2014). If the minimum wage back then was indexed to inflation it would be $10.86 per hour today (Vallas, 2014). If the United States would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, it would bring more than 4 million Americans out of poverty (Vallas, 2014). Another major way I feel that the poverty rate in the United States can be decreased is by taxing wealthy a lot more than they are currently being taxed. As of 2010, the lowest 20% of Americans paid an 11.1% tax rate while the top 1% paid only 5.6% (Waldron, 2013). The lowest percentile is paying nearly twice as much in taxes compared to the top 1 percentile. If the taxation of the rich was at a higher percentile then the monies accumulated could go toward programs that could help lift the less fortunate above the poverty line. It may be my personal opinion, but I do feel that the 1% can â€Å"afford† the higher taxes due to them not being affected by it as much as the lower and middle class. Even Warren Buffet stated, â€Å"I would suggest 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on amounts above that† (Buffet, 2012). If we choose to change these two particular aspects, not only will poverty decrease greatly, but our economy would continue to flourish. Unfortunately, the legislature has the final say so when it comes to taxation of the United States populace. I just hope that one day that everyone can have the same goal in mind and find a way to bring up our fellow Americans from poverty. The critical thinking process I used in regards to formulating a resolution to lowering the poverty rate in the United States is quite similar to the process that we have been using throughout our studies in the classroom. The first step is to â€Å"State the Problem†, which is â€Å"How can we reduce the poverty rate in the United States†. The second step is to â€Å"State the alternatives†, which I described in my reflection above. The third step is to â€Å"Identify the Pros/Cons of each alternative. I will admit that I did skip this step because I felt that the 4th step clarified everything. Step 4 is â€Å"What is the solution†. I truly believe that a raise in minimum wage and the increased taxation of the wealthy would greatly reduce the poverty level within the United States. Step 5 is â€Å"How well is the solution working†. This can’t be evaluated until Congress passes laws to substantiate my alternatives that I put forth. As I stated in a previous assignment, critical thinking can be used in all areas of life. From making decisions regarding your children to that big decision at work, critical thinking can play a pivotal part in the success or failure of a person. Even though critical thinking is a great tool in making decisions, sometimes your â€Å"gut instinct† will overrule logic. It’s just human nature. We, as humans, are emotional at times and can make decisions based off of those emotions. This is the only feasible reason I could see the critical thinking process not working properly. As far as steps that I can take to continue to use critical thinking in the future, I feel that always taking a step back and weighing all options in any situation would require me to think critically. For me to be successful, I must make wise decisions and that comes from using the critical thinking techniques I have learned throughout this course. With these critical thinking techniques â€Å"under my belt†, I have all the necessary tools to  succeed and prosper in today’s society. Reference Page 1. Buffet, W. (2012). A Minimum Tax for the Wealthy. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/opinion/buffett-a-minimum-tax-for-the-wealthy.html?_r=1& 2. Vallas, R. (2014). The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2014/09/17/97287/the-top-10-solutions-to-cut-poverty-and-grow-the-middle-class/ 3. Waldron, T. (2013). ‘Fundamentally Unfair’: How States Tax The Richest 1 Percent At Half The Rate Of The Poor. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/30/1514461/states-tax-rich-half-poor/

The Last Rajan Essays

The Last Rajan Essays The Last Rajan Essay The Last Rajan Essay the maker of Glaceau VitaminWater. Not bad for a purchase made just nine months earlier. This is a transformed Tata, says Rajeev Gupta, managing director of private equity shop Carlyle Advisory Partners. The global push began four years ago. After a roc? biggest carrier of international phone calls. With its $91 million buyout of British engineering frm Incat International, Tiata Technologies now is a major supplier of outsourced industrial design for American auto and aerospace companies, with 3,300 engineers in India, the United States, and Europe. frst decade as chairman, Tata commissioned a sweeping The crowning deal to date has been Tata Steels review to plot strategy, including a study comparing India with China. He was struck by the sheer audacity of Chinese projects. Whether they built a port or ahighway, they did it big, the kind of scale that caused skepttcs is over the top, he saYs. Bu[ o it. lndia, he concluded, should should Tata Group. By levercgin9 into rurb $13 billion takeover in April of Dutch-British steel giant Corus Group, a target that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. In one swoop, the move greatly expands Tata Steels range of finished products, secures access to automakers across the United States and Europe, ochargo ^n ; :1ii: r*ii: iffiitf:iij and boosts its capacity fivefold, with mills added in Pennsylvania and Ohio. leagues Now, a new gambit may catapult Tata into the big of global auto manufaCfu? ing: The company is said to be weighing a bid for Jagiar Cars and Land Rover, which Ford Motor Co. wants to sell. On top of all this, 372 Brief lntegratiwe Case 2 The Last Rajah: Ratan Tata and Tata,s Global Expansion 373 Building an oryanization with a coherent vision and major deals and pushed for acquisitions capable of succeeding in so many industries and so many such as Corus. The ventures lnto passenger markets, though, is a daunting cals and telecom are his task. Asia has wrtnessed babies. And Tata is rnstrumental the rise of many soup-to_nuts in hatching new busi_ behemoths that thrived nesses, bouncing ideas gleaned when economic tides were from his travels to manag_ high, such as Koreas Daewoo, ers for. follow_up Thailands Char. oen Pokphand, and Indonesias Salim Ratan Tata serves another Group. Most eventually fell vital function: While at ease apart. The leal test for Tata, with lawyers and inves tment too, is likely to come when bankers, he remains firmly Indias boom abates and bat_ planted in the developing tles for talent and market share world. He is a passlonate pl-o_ invol ving both aggr. essive motel of corporate social responsibilitv. Indian r. ivals and deep-pocketed a mission that multinationals intensify dates to the group,s founding But unlike most other Asian groups, ,Tata in the 1SZos by Tatas greatalready has grandfather, Jamsetji proved it can survrve turmoil Tata. The founder w as a proneering and constantly reinvent industrialist, philanthropist, itself, says Harvard Business and fervent nationalist who School professor. Tar. n traveled to the United States with Khanna, who has closely studied a swaml, meeting the the group for a decade. tycoons of the day. He opened AI the center of the emptre is India, s hrst textile mill, in Tata himself. An ar. chi_ large part to wean Indians tecture graduate from Cornell from their industrial dependUniversity in 1 962, he ence on Britain, which until then serves as the gr. oups chief dealmaker had miIed much of the vrstonar. y, and spir_ subcontinent,s cotton and then itu al cement. He joined the company, shipped the high-cost cloth after college, then back to the colonies. Tata offered steadily rose thr. ough the ranks. worker. benefits such as He took over 16 years child care and pensions long before ago-after the death of his gregarious most companies in uncle, J R. D. the West, and later one of Jamsetji s Tata-just as India began dismantling sons helpecl bankroil decades of socialista young Mahatma Gandhi while style business controls. Tata has he agitated in South overseen sharp downsizAfrica for the rIghts of immigrant ing, ris? plunges into auto Indians. manufacturing and telecom, To thjs day, the Tata Gloup and a transformation of the r. mains devoted to good conglomerate s insular and works: Charitable trusts own lethargic management culture. 66 percent of the shares in Now he wants to prove parent Tata Sons, and many of its Tata companies can c ompete companies fund gr-assin the rich West as well roots antipoverty plojects that seem as in the unpredictable but far lemoved from hugely promiOing markets of their core businesses. Ask the developi ng world. Whats the chairman to name mole, Tata wants to set gloups the biggest challenges and he quickly the group solidly on a path to achieving all this befo? cires two: Talent, and retaining he retires. our value system as we get bigger. and more diverse. We have The barrel-chested tycoon to rncrease the management hasn,t named a successor. or bandwidth, and with the same said when he plans to step ethical standards. ,, down. He,ll t* iO in Decem_ He also concedes that the gr. oup be? , but he still has a vicelike is much less focused handshake, and associates than he envisioned back in are amazed at his command 1991, when he pledged to pare of nomb. , and technical it from details of the various Tata scores of companies to companfr. fri_r. es his fail_ . just a dozen did dump marginal businesses-cosmetics or so. Tata ure to designate a successor all the more disconcerting. cement-but pants, and Some even quesrion entered letail, telecom, biotech, wherhe? hi. ,t;;:tuiriigtrt and others spur the Today, Tata Group . ,V/ho compnses nearly 100 companies will U tti 4uf,;rorries one i:ups breakup. with 300 subsidiaries in 40 businesses. veteran insider. ,,Will there even be u-. noul leader? ,, Slimming the group down is Tata to oversee the gr. oup. y at a company museum. rough gener. tions of parsi escended from persians. one ar. ea where set out to do,,,he admits. I have not succeeded in what I d childless_and his siblings. It His r-eclusive half_brother, tail chain, but it,s unclear Succession ,,is a problem,,, volved in more issues than does step down, Ratan Tata hough he and other family of shares in Tata Sons, the h controlling stakes in its three half_sister. s aren,t s key units including Tata inrimarely inr4plved in all nesses His hope is that Tata s unorthodox structurc will give individual companies the agility to respond to new opportunihes and ill. ats. The organization is a lot lighter than a Wester. n conglomerate, says Alan Rosling, a Bliton who s pearheads international expanston for Tata. There is no central sftategy. We don t even have consolidated finan_ cial statements, The group is bound together by the small staffs of Tata Sons and another holding company, Tata Industries. These two chaired , by Ratan, provide strategic vtslon, control the Tata brand, and lend a hand on big deals. And Tata Sons can raise cash to launch new busi_ or help fund purchases such as Corus. In 2004 ]t 344 Part 3 lnternational Strategic Management in pulled in $1. 3 billion by floating a 10 percent share the companYs home b time capsule of a more city of genteel coloni urld, hukd from the $40 million a Year sup even though it emPloYs residents. And in its agreed Iesembles a I age, a leafY wide boulesPends some to early retirement got full pay until age 60 and lifelong health care. Tata Steel also spends mlllions annually on education nearby health, and agricultural development plojects in 800 a dusty outpost villages. In Sidhma Kudhar, for instance, of whitewashed stone houses with thatched roofs the crop 32 families until two years ago subsisted on a single a nonintrusive manner. The chief steward, though, cleally is Ratan Tata He jatlopha bushes seedlings for future income, as well as now whose ieeds can be used for biofuel Most childlen village has attend classes in the reftrrbished school, and the tllee televisions, powered by Tata solar units that also supply clocks. strike at Tata Motors Pune plant, militant unionists of the assaulted Tata managers and occupied a section city. higher-cost operations u*stion will the test now that Tata loads the Indian steeland absorbing Corus weaken malgins One key If you Put a gun Tata is what to do with Cotus mills such as the one at port Talbot in Wales, which employs 3,000 workers Tata says had better take the gun Im not moving. uraman, But the u it, says Muthpeople Ive ever Tata Steel Talbot to have to cut jobs. and broke the strike aft and the milita nts. While he doesnt look hes one of the toughest A delegation of 20 Corus labol reps known. The transformation of Tata Steel illustrates his impact obal In the early ompetition, antiquated P entation . *itl or1- Leahy. But how will own We comichael they be able to translate those prin- calls Muthuraman. Over the yeats, Tata cut the workforce from 78,000 to 38,000 and spent $2. 5 billion on modernization A decade later, Tata Steel had become one of the worlds efficient and profitable producels and began to most acquire rivals. Ratan was the chief architect of the Coius deal, says Muthuraman. I was worried about the conmagnitude and the amount of money But he instilled Because Tata is one of the few big fidence. The strategy: ore steelmakers with its own abundant coal and iron produce raw steel at low cost in India and reserves, it can then ship it to Oorus first-rate mills in the Vyest to make finished products. But Tata Steel highlights the challenges of balancing Old World ways w ith New Economy realities Jamshedpur TheY ciples into the British and European context? couldnt answel that' A bid fol Jaguar and L even more daunting challe give Tata a luxurY bland an would be an uPhill climb to r which was damaged bY sha Tata executives, who wont c and Land Rover, have dow United States, citing the hig mitments in emerging m mall cars under the Rover years amid comPlaints abou once made onlY trucks, sur cess of the Indica, an affor grief lntegratiwe Gase 2 The Last Rajah: Ratan Tata and Tatas Global Expansion 375 from scratch and rolled out in the 1990s. The Indica is now Indias number-two car and is selling well in South Africa, Spain, and Italy. Tata also will soon stafi exporting cars and trucks through a venture with Fiat (FIA) and is eyeing a similar project in South America. The company had another big hit in 2006 with the Ace, a bare-bones truck for less than $6,000. Tata already is boosting its output from 75,000 minitrucks to 250,000. energy giant British Peffoleum (BP), supplies buildings in Germany with rooftop solar-electric systems. But in developing nations, the company sees a vast market in bringing affordable power to villages that are off the power grid. The company has introduced low-cost, solar-powered water pumps, refrigerators, and $30 lanterns that bum for two hours on a days charge. And it has fitted 50,000 homes with $300 systems that can power two lights, a hot plate, a fan, and a l4-inch TV. But this is a drop in the ocean, says Tata BP Solar CEO K. Subramanya. We ought to be touching millions. There is little question that the opportunities for Tata in India and abroad are staggering. But can the group succeed on all these fronts simultaneously? The interesting dilemmas will come when the Indian economy slows and some Tata affrliates inevitably stumble. Future managers could look at expensive burdens such as Jamshedpur and rural-development projects as tempting targets for cuts when times get tight. Tata companies could lose interest in low-cost goods for the masses without a passionate promoter as group chairman. And the group could take a tougher look at businesses to spin off. For the foreseeable future, though, these are nonissues. Though Tata vows that he wont carry this on endlessly, he says he will stay on at least two years beyond when he chooses a successor. So he seems likely to fulfrll the last big item on his agenda: building a network of companies capable of tluiving in 21st-century global competition while still adhering to traditional values long after the departure of Ratan Tata. Strrrnlrles Ratans big passion, though, is the one lakh car. (One lakh is 100,000 rupees. And that many rupees equals about $2,500. ) Since the mid-1990s, he has wanted to develop reliable but supercheap vehicles, a project he believes could ultimately revolutionize the auto industry and make India a major economic power. Tata personally supervised the project and traveled frequently to Tata Motors development center in Pune to check on progress. Originally he envisioned a fundamentally new kind of vehicle-one made of plastics, for example, that didnt even resemble what we think of today as a car. He concedes that the spartan, oval-shaped model to be launched n early 2008 doesnt meet his lofty aims. Its made of steel. And it looks like, well, a car. To get the price to $2,500, engineers shrunk the size and stlipped out frills such as reclining seats and a radio. There is not a lot of innovation, he says. We didnt reinvent the business. Tata has similar ambitions to reinvent solar energy. Tata BP Solar Ltd. , a $260 million venture with British Go-Go Tata Since beginning a global push four years ago, lndias once-plodding Tata Group has expanded aggressively at home and abroad in a wide range of industries. Some of its major holdings: Building a new car plant and sharply boosting output of its small truck, the Ace. A new venture with Fiat will co-produce 1 50,000 cars and 250,000 trucks annually. The biggest gamble: a $2,500 peoples carto be launched in 2008. s7. 2 $490 BILLION MILLION l+260/0l (+36%) TATA STEEL Bought mills in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and is now expanding in lndia. With its $13 billion purchase of Corus, Europes No. 2 steelmaker, capacity should reach 50 million tons by 2010, behind only Arcelor Mittal. $6. 6 $923 BILLION MILLION (+ee%) +33%) TATA CO N SU TTANCY SERVI CES Biding the software and tech services outsourcing boom, TCS has grown explosively in the past five years. Now its developing its own software for $4. 2 $930 = z BILLION MILLION transportation, retail, finance, and other industries. All figures for fiscal year N4ar 31, l+41%l l+43%l 2007 ) ,,, 37lo 0uestions for Review Part 3 lnternational Strategic Management l. How do the Tata Gr. oups strat egies in its home market differ from its international ventures? Do you think joint ventures are essential for Tatas future success? 2. What haye been Ratan Tatas most important strate_ gic initiatives for the company? Should his succes_ sor follow in his footsteps or pursue new paths for growth? 3. V/hat risks might Tata face in its global expansion? How might it manage their risks? Source: Reprinted with special permission from pete Engardio, . ,The Last Rajah: Indias Ratan Tata Aims to Transform His Once_Stodgy Conglomerate Into a Global Powerhouse. But Can It Thrive After He Steps Down? with Nandini Lakshman in Mumbai. BusinessWeek, August 2, 2007. Copyright @ 2007 by rhe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.